If You Want a Better World, Act Like You Live in It
We’ve had Henry David Thoreau the environmentalist, the libertarian, the life coach. To understand his influence, think of him first as a dissident.
Books
Introducing The Atlantic’s expanded books coverage: essays, criticism, fiction, poetry, and recommendations from our writers and editors
The Publishing Mystery That No One Wants to Talk About
A minimally speaking autistic man just wrote a best-selling book. Or did he?
The Paradox of Modern Medicine
Testing has become so advanced that doctors now miss important elements of diagnosis.
What Does Lena Dunham Want to Tell Us?
Her new memoir captures the cost of being an impossibly popular target.
The Eighth Deadly Sin
Humankind has devised a new form of debasement.
Six Books That Simply Must Be Talked About
These six books demand discussion—with a pal, a date, or a book club.
Nine Books to Reset Your View of the World
Each of these titles will widen your perspective, offering you original insight and vision.
Seven Books to Read When You Have No Time to Read
These titles are worth picking up, even if you have only a moment to spare.
Six Books You Can Get Lost In
These novels highlight the power—both good and bad—of unchecked fantasizing.
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The Books Briefing
Our culture editors’ weekly guide to the best in books.
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Fortunes
A short story
The Honor of the Layward Brothers
A short story
We Are Not One
A short story
Diseducators
A short story
Why So Many Writers Are Athletes
Exercise acts as an extra twist to open the tap of creativity.
Taking the Internet Novel Offline
The author Madeline Cash has tried a new way to write an engaging novel about screens.
A Champion of Modernism, in Literature and Life
Margaret C. Anderson was at the center of a notorious literary-obscenity trial. Then she was forgotten.
The Unhappy Literary Families of the Internet Age
Fiction about online life tends to mimic its dull repetition. A debut novel doesn’t quite succeed in raising the stakes—but it points the way forward.
Julian Barnes Says Goodbye to the Novel
His fiction has found meaning in life’s gaps and love’s absence.
First Memory
A poem
What Stephen Miller Gets Wrong About Human Nature
The Trump adviser’s assertions about the “real world” reflect a deep misunderstanding of Thomas Hobbes’s dog-eat-dog worldview.
What a Fantasy Can Reveal About Real Life
A character’s daydreams can be a powerful indication of what they care most about.
A New Understanding of Human Beings’ Most Basic Desire
The philosopher Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s latest book looks beyond happiness as the goal of a well-lived life.